When ad campaigns backfire

A Daily Mail article has brought the dangers of brand promotions into the consumers light.

Walker's new campaign and promotion involves a online game where a £10 prize is available. Consumers enter on the Walkers website, with a code number found on Walkers crisp packets. The website then lets each consumer pick a time and place from a map that they think it will rain, and if correct they are awarded £10.

The idea behind the campaign is good, it has links with their other campaigns and is driving more traffic to the website and providing an incentive for people to buy their brand.

However, they have set themselves on thin ice and their online betting game is proving an easy win and they had already paid out £660,000 by the beginning of November, and the promotion is set to run though November.

Consumers are also cottoning on about how successful (for them) it has been. There have been many reports about consumers writing down the codes in shops as they are printed on the outside of the packets.

The idea is good, promotions still get people participating; but in hindsight Walkers should have at least printed the codes on the inside of the packs so consumers had to buy the crisps to access them. Hindsight is wonderful thing, and is never there when you need it the most.

I think this is a warning to all agencies and brands. With advertising becoming more and more apparent in every part of the consumers world, they will be looking for way to swing the stakes their way. Consumers know more and more about advertising methods, does this mean agencies have to get at least 5 steps ahead to play the game?

Advert lengths = target audience?

Watching the Good Food channel the programme ended and i tuned out. Out of the corner of my eye i saw the start of what seemed like an advert, but it went on and on. Curiosity took over and turned up the volume, and found i was watching the demonstration of how to make pastry for a pie. It had been playing for 2 minutes by this point and i was convinced it was the start of the next programme. However, a minute later it ended with the pastry made and the screen changed to the next advert.

Annoyingly i cannot find a copy of this advert anywhere, and i have no idea what it was for have no clear ending to it. However, i did see it again two days later in the exact same format so i am certain it was not a programming blip.

Is this a taste of adverts to come? Are we being influenced by other cultures and adverts will become common at 3/4 minutes? Or is this an advert tailored solely to its specific channel target audience that have the interest and attention span for 3 minute adverts?

Coded flash mobs

The use of Facebook for all purposes is growing. The most recently addition to it's list of uses has included their own style of flash mobs. Many charity campaigns have been jumping on the band wagon for this, with the most recent making it's annual reappearance is Breast Cancer.

With last years campaign featuring women writing about the colour of their underwear via their Facebook status, they left men wondering for days what the hype was about.

The emails have already started circling for this years Facebook campaign keep your eyes peeled for the statuses to start emerging. Can you work out this years coding system?

The power of song

Is the power of song becoming a stronger and more powerful advertising tool? Are the melody and lyrics of a song enough to enhance a brand and it's message?

There appears to be a growing trend at the moment for well known movie/musical songs to be incorporated into ad

verts; used as the background music to on screen action or as the main theme with the lyrics adapted to suit the brands message.

Mazuma mobile ad here, has altered the famous oompaloompa song from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie to incorporate its brand and their selling message.

Littlewoods christmas advert uses A Nightmare before Christmas as its accompaniment to the onscreen action for it's advert showcasing the magic of christmas and reverting to childhood.

Although i like both the advert's action and the song, parts of the connection between them are still very loose and it doesn't appear to fit all the messages that Littlewood are expressing. The magic of christmas is certainly displayed though both action and song but the other theme of Christmas (bringing out the child inside) although choreographed very well could have been suited to a better song considering the connotations with the movie A Nightmare before Christmas.

Even Iceland who have for a few years now aired their chirstmas advert in the form of song, seem to be following the trend of movie/show tunes this year and have moved away from adpating the lyrcis of well-known christmas songs, to adapting the famous Can-Can (film version from Moulin Rouge). Though a catchy tune and a well known song, the tempo makes the lryics very hard to hear, so although the brand will certainly be remembered this chirtsmas their exact message may not be displayed (apart from the prices of course).

How many other brands will be joining this group of musical sellers? Will the 'catchy' nature of these songs project them to the forefront of consumers minds when Christmas shopping, even if the song is hated by particular consumers? Adverts own form of pester power?

The question will remain to be answered, is the power of a song enough to enhance the brand in the consumers eye?

Technology limitations?

Reading through the papers, I saw a headline that certainly did its job as it caught my eye, "just vacuum the dog" it claimed. A copy is available here

Upon reading further it was an attachment to your normal hoover created by Dyson that allowed you to hoover the dogs loose hairs straight off them so that they didn't drop onto the carpet.

I am a bit dubious about this gadget, it is supposed to help house-proud owners, but can you 'over-hoover' the dog? It already states in the article that it is not suitable for nervous animals. I cant really see a dog who's aggravated by the normal hoover noise letting you anywhere near him waving a hoover with a new attachment on the end.

I understand that this is a problem (dog hair on carpet) but i don't think the solution is quite finished yet. I see the idea but i don't think its ready. Although dog hair is a problem for many people, is this a situation where the technology doesn't help the problem at all?

Is society realising that technology can't solve every problem?

This isn't just a funeral...it's an M&S funeral

Is this new branding strategy going one step too far in terms of branding and convenience?

The M&S campaign of being "not just an x,y,z but an M&S x,y,z.." has been a long running and successful campaign. Although internet forums and chat-rooms display their annoyance at the adverts tone of voice and superiority message, the branding has brought M&S to be a well known name among consumers.

But is adding this campaign and its message to the emotional minefield of a funeral a good idea or a fast track ticket to brand failure?

Although society is fixed on the idea of convenience and limited disruption to their lives, is an M&S funeral one step too far in a one-stop shop for every need? Will this campaign turn the brand into a caring brand that caters for every need; a perfectly tailored service to your wishes by a top quality brand that you know and trust? Or an emotionless cold-hearted 'book you relatives funerals while you shop for your vegetables', everything under one roof shop?

Tetley tea, new faces same old brand?

Finding a newspaper clipping i had saved form the summer nudged me in to posting it up here. The report was from 5th august regarding the relaunch of the tetley tea characters.

The illustrations are said to be under consideration still when they were published to the public; but the nostalgic relaunch of the characters who disappeared 9 years ago is looking to be a lot more blinged up than born again.

Although times must sometimes change, was this attempt to 'move with the times' destined to make or break this brand? Although an argument may be raised that the new characters will be easier for the next generation to connect with; the counter arguement raises the point asking if these are the images we want to be sending out as role-models to our children?

The brand insists that these characters have a 'modern day feel but are still quite obviously the characters viewers loved so much'. But is this 'modern-day feel' the role models that we want to be promoting to the next generation? Is this a case where 'getting down with the kids' is a brand turn-off?

The roles being promoted include a rapper who's appeared more in court than a tea factory, a WAG sporting making -up and designers gear, and business man styled on the stereotype of a mob boss.

Although the first advert of the relaunch was met with approval from consumers, with online forums naming it 'a tear- jerker' and an 'emotional nostalgic comeback'; the response to the supposedly leaked characters revamp was not been met with such positive comments.

If these are the stereotypes that have been pulled out to represent Britain, is this the image we want, or have, of the best of British?